The May 10 ceremonies at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary's Chapel of the Cross recognized 62 graduates who completed their degrees in Fall 2011 or Spring 2012. Thirty-six students graduated with a Master of Arts degree, five received a Master of Arts with a concentration in Biblical Languages, and twenty-one received the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Graduates are listed by degree and include their thesis title, area of study or school of affiliation, committee members, and thesis abstract; language specialization is noted for MABL graduates in lieu of thesis...
The May 10 ceremonies at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary's Chapel of the Cross recognized 62 graduates who completed their degrees in Fall 2011 or Spring 2012. Thirty-six students graduated with a Master of Arts degree, five received a Master of Arts with a concentration in Biblical Languages, and twenty-one received the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Graduates are listed by degree and include their thesis title, area of study or school of affiliation, committee members, and thesis abstract; language specialization is noted for MABL graduates in lieu of thesis information. View photos on Facebook.
Doctor of Philosophy | Master of Arts | Master of Arts with a Concentration in Biblical Languages
Malik JoDavid Sales, Ph.D. Systematic and Philosophical Theology, addressed his fellow graduates.
Dr. Boyung Lee, Associate Professor, Pacific School of Religion, was recognized as this year's Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award recipient.
Ajit K. Abraham
Alternative Narratives in Contemporary Globalization: A Case Study of Visthar and Sebastian Kappen
Interdisciplinary Studies
Philip L. Wickeri (Coordinator); Judith A. Berling; Fumitaka Matsuoka; Muzafar Assadi, Mysore University
This dissertation explores how social movements, such as Visthar, and their secular social change agendas assist Indian Christian contextual theologians to critically respond to contemporary globalization. In this interdisciplinary case study, Visthar provides alternative narratives for theologians to construct models, to encourage churches, and to develop a critical language to address neo-liberalization in Bengaluru City, India.
Raymond Carr
Barth and Cone in Dialogue on Revelation and Freedom: An Analysis of James Cone’s Critical Appropriation of “Barthian” Theology
Systematic and Philosophical Theology
Michael J. Dodds, O.P. (Coordinator); James A. Noel; Paul S. Chung, Luther Seminary
This dissertation interrogates James Cone’s appropriation of “Barthian” theology, arguing that Cone appropriated Barth in a radical way, primarily because of his socio-political orientation. Ironically, however, when Barth is understood from a left-wing Barthian tradition, Cone’s interpretation is more radical than so-called “white” Barthians, but not radical enough. Barth is still ahead of Cone and a deeper solidarity with Barth can contribute to black theology.
Young Hyun Choi
Hans Frei’s Postliberal Theology and Its Application to Korean Protestant Preaching
Homiletics
Jana Childers (Coordinator); Mary Donovan Turner; Charles L. Campbell, Duke University; Chang Bok Chung, Hanil University
The Korean Protestant church has been influenced by individualism and consumerism. In order to correct a trend toward individualism and consumerism in the Korean Protestant church, Korea Protestant preachers need to expand their homiletical focus. Hans Frei’s postliberal theology provides a foundation for constructing a broader homiletical model: a communal homiletic for Korean Protestant preachers.
Rebecca M. Berru Davis
Women Artists of the Early Twentieth Century Liturgical Movement in the United States: The Contributions of E. Charlton Fortune, Ade Bethune, and Sister Helene O’Connor, O.P.
Art and Religion
Michael T. Morris, O.P. (Coordinator); Mary E. McGann, R.S.C.J.; Jeffrey Burns, Academy of American Franciscan History; Susan Verdi Webster, College of William and Mary
Employing the disciplines of art history and liturgical studies, and drawing on primary source archival documents, identified extant art, and secondary research, this dissertation highlights the lives and situates the contributions of three little known women artists: E. Charlton Fortune, Ade Bethune, and Sister Helene O’Connor, O.P., within the context of the early twentieth century Liturgical Movement in the United States.
Elizabeth Ford Friend
The Writing Life: Narrative, Metaphor, and Emotion in the Spiritual Autobiographies of Teresa of Avila and Sarah Edwards
Christian Spirituality
Arthur G. Holder (Coordinator); Elizabeth Liebert, S.N.J.M.; George Lakoff, University of California, Berkeley; Eve Sweetser, University of California, Berkeley
This dissertation analyzes the spiritual autobiographies of Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) and Sarah Edwards (1710-1758). The dissertation employs the methodological lenses of autobiography studies and cognitive linguistics in order to identify key narratives and metaphors for the spiritual life and explore the significance of the interpretation process for lived spirituality.
John T. Handley
Bodying-Forth Ultimate Concern: Human Existence, Transcendence, and Religious Dimensions in the Art of Stephen De Staebler
Art and Religion
Michael T. Morris, O.P. (Coordinator); Peter Selz, University of California, Berkeley; Wilson Yates, United Seminaries; Sarah Clark-Langager, Western Washington University
De Staebler (1933-2011) studied religion at Princeton prior to becoming a sculptor. His career coincided with a period when the human form in art became distorted, and theologians began looking to art for answers to the question of human existence. De Staeblers’s art has been widely understood to address existential questions about ultimate concern and transcendence, especially his winged bronze figures like that on display at the Graduate Theological Union’s library.
Daniel J. Issing
Institutional Identity as Catholic at Catholic Colleges and Universities: A Theological and Ethical Analysis and Proposal
Ethics and Social Theory
James A. Donahue (Coordinator); Jerome P. Baggett; Karen Lebacqz; Edward Malloy, C.S.C., University of Notre Dame
This dissertation explores the identity of Catholic colleges and universities, a source of disagreement and controversy in Catholic higher education. It demonstrates the importance of the modern idea of the Catholic university, renews the conciliar church-world instinct, and proposes an ethic for dialogic decision-making that assures justice and charity in intellectual production, a critical challenge in today’s higher education marketplace.
Melissa M. James
“Gender Works in Mysterious Ways”: Making Sense of Service
Ethics and Social Theory
Martha Ellen Stortz (Coordinator); Jerome P. Baggett; Barrie Thorne, University of California, Berkeley; Anna Sims Bartel, Bates College
Using data from qualitative interviews with Diaconal Ministers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Volunteer Corps participants, this dissertation analyzes how women in service-based work make meaning of their work, self and world. The study develops a framework for analysis called “bounded meaning-making,” which focuses attention on how meaning is shaped by power, institutions, and human agency. After employing “bounded meaning-making” to examine the respondents’ understanding of self, work, service and justice, the dissertation draws on their experiences in conversation with feminist theological ethics to offer a re-imagining of the concept of vocation. The author claims that vocation should be understood in terms of being called as embodiments of radical love shaped by and accountable to communities, for the work of prophetic diakonia provides an important tool for creating new ways of making sense of service and creating a just world.
Bitna Kim
Shimjung Counseling: An Indigenous Pastoral Counseling Model for Koreans
Interdisciplinary Studies
Lewis R. Rambo (Coordinator); Boyung Lee; Gyuseog Han, Chunnam University
The dissertation proposes that Korean pastoral counseling can be enriched by engaging Korean cultural psychology. In order to provide a culturally informative pastoral counseling model, this study introduces three Korean indigenous concepts: Jung, Woori and Shimjung. This study reviews Shimjung counseling developed by San-Chin Choi, and proposes Shimjung pastoral counseling utilizing Shimjung narrative theory.
Jung Hyung Kim
Cosmic Hope in a Scientific Age: Christian Eschatology in Dialogue with Scientific Age Cosmology
Systematic and Philosophical Theology
Ted Peters (Coordinator); Robert J. Russell; Martinez Hewlett; Jong Hak Woo, Seoul National University
In the face of the scientific prediction of the endless lifeless freeze of our physical universe, today’s theological formulation of cosmic hope for the future of creation requires two elements: reconstructing the foundation of cosmic hope from distinctively theological resources – in particular, biblical visions of the renewal and completion of the present creation as promised in the resurrection of Jesus Christ – and exploring possible scientific illumination on the scope and nature of the hoped-for renewed creation.
James F. Lawrence
And Speaking of Something Else: Biblical Allegories, Swedenborg, and Tradition
Christian Spirituality
Arthur G. Holder (Coordinator); Darleen Pryds; George Dole, Swedenborg School of Religion
This dissertation interrogates Swedenborg’s alleged ahistorical readings of the Bible. Three new historicist case studies constructing Swedenborg’s interlocutors for correspondence theory, Jewish and Christian Kabbalah, and Alexandrian-style allegoresis reveal the Swedish mystic profoundly indebted to earthly discourse for the structure and vocabulary of his new inner sense of scripture purportedly received from heaven.
Sang Hak Lee
Reclaiming the Understanding of Sin and Salvation from a Korean Experience of Han
Systematic and Philosophical Theology
George E. Griener, S.J. (Coordinator); Marion S. Grau; Lewis R. Rambo; Andrew S. Park, United Theological Seminary
Because the traditional forensic metaphors of sin as guilt or debt and salvation as forgiveness or remission of sin that prevail in the Korean church do not offer redemptive power in any meaningful way, the primary model of sin should be changed from a forensic image of guilt to a medical image of wound/damage; correspondingly, the primary model of salvation should be changed from a forensic image of forgiveness of sin to a therapeutic image of healing.
Richard A. Lindsay
The Camp and the Kerygma: Queer Readings of Hollywood Biblical Epics
Art and Religion
Michael T. Morris, O.P. (Coordinator); Jay Emerson Johnson; Erin Runions, Pomona College
This dissertation examines the significant spiritual importance that viewers have invested in Hollywood biblical epics. Nevertheless, these films often contain sexual and violent spectacle that is excessive, in a word, “camp.” The dissertation suggests these moments of camp open up the further negotiation of meaning in these films, including interpretations that take into account queer experience.
W. Eugene McMullan
Queer Witness: Religion and the History of the LGBT Movement in San Francisco, 1948-1981
History
Randi Jones Walker (Coordinator); Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski; Mark D. Jordan, Harvard Divinity School
In conversation with queer and other post-structural accounts, this dissertation examines primary sources to construct a baseline narrative of the roles of Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism in the emerging lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement in San Francisco in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
Catherine Passantino Mitchell
“Cum enim Ecclesiae causas agimus”: Rescriptive Form and Claims to Dual Responsibility in the Ephesian Correspondence of Leo I
History
Eugene M. Ludwig, O.F.M. Cap. (Coordinator); J. Rebecca Lyman; Thomas Turley, Santa Clara University
This dissertation explores Leo I’s Ephesian correspondence with the emperor Theodosius II. Leo’s use of a variation of the imperial rescript expressed his claim to responsibility for the rectitude both of ecclesial and temporal affairs. His unique use of literacy, namely imperial rescriptive form, marked Leo’s Ephesian correspondence as valuable evidence of the working relationships of the fifth century.
Sang-Kyu Park
Spatial Eschatology: A Reading of the New Temple of God in the Fourth Gospel
Biblical Studies
Jean-Francois Racine (Coordinator); Herman C. Waetjen; Mary L. Coloe, Australian Catholic University
This study envisions a spatial eschatology of “being-in-the-presence of God.” In the Fourth Gospel, one discovers unexplored spaces such as the new Living Temple (Jn. 2:21), and the Enlarged Living Temple (Jn. 14:2) through the Spirit. This new Temple explains the Johannine community’s vision for the transformation (salvation) of the cosmos. “Thirdspace,” a concept from critical geographical theories, illuminates the eschatological significance of the new Temple: openness and possibilities.
Heather W. Reichgott
A Political Theology of Baptism
Systematic and Philosophical Theology
Michael B. Aune (Coordinator); Jay Emerson Johnson; Elizabeth Stuart, University of Winchester
Many influential voices in contemporary Christian communities make the theologically disturbing claim that Christian identity is tied in to heterosexuality. Far more central to the Christian tradition is the conviction that the identity of Christians is grounded not in sexual obedience but in baptism. This dissertation draws on Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theology of being able to claim that in baptism, we take on the identity of Christ at an infinite remove. Since Jesus has risen from the dead and lives today, Christian identity is determined by a living person, in paradoxical tension between individual personhood and shared personhood in Christ.
Malik JoDavid Sales
Saving Possibilities: Salvation, The Holy Spirit, and Variegated Resistance
Systematic and Philosophical Theology
Marion S. Grau (Coordinator); George E. Griener, S.J.; Tumara Roberts, University of California, Berkeley
This dissertation rethinks fundamental questions concerning Christian soteriology by dialoging with liberation theologies and performance theory. This project analyzes catastrophic events, such as Hurricane Katrina, the salvific multivalence of the Holy Spirit, and the liberating potential of performance and works of art. The dissertation was supplemented by the production of an accompanying album, The Infinite Struggle.
Nicanor Sarmiento Tupayupanqui
Andean Christian Theologies, Elements of a Rainbow of Theological Voices of the Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala: A Missiological and Anthropological Study of the Andean Trilogy
Interdisciplinary Studies
Eduardo C. Fernandéz, S.J. (Coordinator); Judith A. Berling; Margaret Conkey, University of California, Berkeley; John Gorski, M.M., Catholic University of Bolivia
This dissertation explores, analyses, and systematizes the anthropological and theological elements of the Andean Christian theologies found in the Andean trilogy. The thesis fosters a systematic development of the Christian theologies deeply rooted in the cultural values and Christian traditions of the people through an interdisciplinary research framework called “tripolar dialogue.” The emergence of Andean theologies is situated in the context of cultural and intellectual decolonization, and renewal of the Andean local churches.
Peggy Vernieu
The Muting of Samaritan/Ephraimic Voices in the Gospel According to John
Biblical Studies
Mary A. Tolbert, (Coordinator); Antoinette C. Wire; Daniel Boyarin, University of California, Berkeley
By calling attention to ethnic conflict embedded in the Gospel according to John, this dissertation amplifies Samaritan-linked voices that have been co-opted, muted, and obscured by the Judah-friendly, Greek-writing voice which controls the Johannine discourse by having the last word.
Daeseop Daniel Yi
An Enriched Christian Understanding of St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises Through the Process of Passing Over and Coming Back with Visuddhimagga: Path of Purification
Christian Spirituality
Elizabeth Liebert, S.N.J.M. (Coordinator); Judith A. Berling; Thomas Cattoi; Heng Sure, Institute for World Religions and Dharma Realm Buddhist University
This study focuses on a way to enrich Christians’ understanding of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, using the process of “passing over” and “coming back” with Visuddhimagga: Path of Purification. The major conclusion is that the two goals (union with God and Election) that have been asserted for the Spiritual Exercises cannot be separated from one another. Moreover, using vipassana meditation in a harmonious way in the Spiritual Exercises enhances the retreatant’s potential for attaining the ultimate goals.
Abdel Ali
Islam, Race and the Maliki School: Racialized Thinking in Islamic Theological Reflection
Starr King School for the Ministry
WITH HONORS
Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé (Coordinator)
This thesis reviews critical race theory and anti-black sentiment among some of the pivotal scholars in the Maliki School of Islamic law. Whether it is the subject of the “undignified” status of black women, the presumptive slave status of black people, or the aesthetic diminution of black skin, there is sufficient indication that a trend among some Egyptian Sufis of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries held institutionalized and/or perpetuated perspectives that contributed to widespread antipathy for African and dark skin. The thesis argues these subjective aesthetic sensitivities led to noticeable patterns of discrimination in the normative structures of law and theological reflection.
Jeremy Arnold
Watching the “Wandjina Watching”: Exploring Cultural Difference in the Appropriation of an Indigenous Australian Icon
Pacific School of Religion
Rossitza Schroeder (Coordinator); John Hilary Martin, O.P.; Michael T. Morris, O.P.
Between 2006 and 2008, a street artist graffitied hundreds of Wandjina images in Perth. The indigenous Wandjina-Wunggurr people religiously revere these spirit figures, which are depicted in their rock art and contemporary canvas paintings. This thesis analyzes the appropriation and argues the images represent the desires and struggles of two cultures (Western and indigenous) to visually define themselves.
Ali J. Ataie
Finding Muhammad in the New Testament: An Orthodox Muslim’s Interpretive Methodological Approach to the Christian Scriptures
Pacific School of Religion
Tat-Siong Benny Liew (Coordinator)
This thesis proposes a methodological framework by which an orthodox Muslim may read and interpret the New Testament. It attempts to answer the question, “What does a Muslim do with the New Testament and why?” The application of such a reasoned interpretive methodology will enhance the quality and substance of interfaith discourse and dialogue.
Tracy Colleen Barnowe
A Refugee is a Blind Man: A Critical Study of Blindness as Cognitive Metaphor in the Old Testament
Pacific School of Religion
Aaron Brody (Coordinator); Barbara Green, O.P.; Fred Tiffany, Northwest House of Theological Studies
This thesis is a critical study of blindness in the Old Testament as a cognitive metaphor for symptoms of exile, and as a reflection of the pervasiveness of population displacement and its associated symptoms within the socio-historical context. This study includes Lamentations 4:13-14, Lamentations 5:16-17, Job 11:20, Job 17:7, and the narratives of the Men of Sodom (Gen. 19:11), Isaac (Gen. 27:1), Samson (Jud. 16:21), Eli (1 Sam. 3:2, 4:15), Elisha and the Arameans (2 Kgs. 6:15-20), Zedekiah (2 Kgs. 25:7) and Tobit (Tob. 2:10).
Kathryn Bilotti-Stark
Compassionate Awareness and Transformation: The Relevancy of Mindfulness Teachings and Practices in Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care
Institute of Buddhist Studies
Daijaku Kinst (Coordinator); Richard K. Payne; Gil Fronsdal
This thesis explores the transformation of suffering and self-experience through the lens of mindfulness as applied to the experience of the chaplain and those they serve. In the thesis, mindfulness is highlighted as an essential competency of spiritual care. Providing a framework for the thesis is the Satipatthana Sutta – The Four Foundations of Mindfulness which sheds light on what the Buddha taught as mindfulness and why it is an important part of Buddhist practice. Included are findings from a survey conducted on the ritual aspect of Buddhist chaplaincy and the use of mindfulness practices by Buddhist chaplains.
Marina Zilbergerts Bitzan
Visions of Paradox: Redefining the Human in Modern Hebrew literature on the Living Dead
Center for Jewish Studies
WITH HONORS
Naomi Seidman (Coordinator); Holger Zellentin; Chana Kronfeld, University of California, Berkeley
This study examines the development of poetry on the living dead by Hebrew writers in the twentieth century. Poetry on the subject of the living dead revolved around the question of paradox, inherent in this oxymoronic figure, and in the role that it played for humanity in the modern world. Hebrew literature on the living dead spanned a period marked by unprecedented catastrophes, such as the rise of Nazism, as well as by immense changes in the world and Jewish history, such as the creation of the state of Israel. In a world where paradox was a part of everyday experience, Hebrew poets used the figure of the living dead to redefine paradox’s role in modern human life.
Robin Braverman
The Halakah of Hassagot Gevul: Authentic Jewish Boundaries for Mothers and Stepmothers in Divorced Families
Center for Jewish Studies
Deena Aranoff (Coordinator); Naomi Seidman; Barbara Green, O.P.
This thesis expands Jewish law to define appropriate behaviors and boundaries to be observed by mothers and stepmothers in divorced families. The thesis engages in ideas from past expansions of laws of hassagat gevul, from other concepts within Jewish law, and from Jewish feminist thinkers who proposed methods to extrapolate from male centered texts ideas that are specific to the experiences of women. The resulting new Jewish law is described in light of the halachic lens from each of the five American Jewish movements.
Kristin M. Casey
Towards Internarrative Dialogue: A Story of the Culture War In America
Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University
Jerome P. Baggett (Coordinator); Thomas Cattoi; T. Howland Sanks, S.J.
While responding to the question, “Does a culture war in America exist?” this thesis explores responses to abortion, education and 9/11 from magazines that represent religious, secular, progressive and conservative American voices. Ultimately, this thesis argues that dialogue between these groups (internarrative dialogue), might be modeled upon interreligious dialogue.
Diandra Chretain
Deborah’s Conflicted Relationship with Patriarchy: A Feminist Critical Analysis of Gender Roles in Judges 4:1-22
Pacific School of Religion
Aaron Brody (Coordinator); Barbara Green, O.P.
This thesis argues that Deborah is an intricately layered character who simultaneously challenges oppressive gender roles yet confines herself to androcentric ideals. The thesis demonstrates that Deborah’s leadership and authority are not as straightforward as they seem, but her character is an amalgamation of conflicted character traits.
Benjamin Cudlip
Epictetus On Education
San Francisco Theological Seminary
Christopher Ocker (Coordinator); Eugene M. Ludwig, O.F.M. Cap.
This thesis explores Epictetus’ definition of education in terms of Stoic philosophy. This thesis concludes that he defined it in terms of the Stoic ideals of health/well-being; of pleasing God/s; and of freedom, happiness, virtue, and infallibility.
Hilary Dotters
“Religion is for God, the Fatherland is for Everyone”: The use of Spare in Iraqi Jewish Literature
Center for Jewish Studies
Naomi Seidman (Coordinator); Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé
To better understand the national identity of Iraqi Jews this paper will explore the role and place literature has had in shaping and representing Jewish sentiments toward Iraq, from its inception as a nation in 1920 to the time when most Jews fled in 1956. This thesis assesses whether one can discern an Iraqi identity given that Iraq, for these writers, was young, post-colonial, and made up of long standing decisions.
Janet Ferree
The Need for Diocesan Awareness and Education in the Fight Against Human Trafficking
Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University
William R. O’Neill (Coordinator); Lisa Fullam; Hugo Cordova-Quero
Human trafficking is a heart-wrenching global plague from which the United States is not immune. The Roman Catholic Church is a faith tradition concerned with social, political, and theological influences that affect the world’s poor and vulnerable. To date, current international efforts to fight trafficking and slavery have been unsuccessful. This thesis identifies many elements of trafficking and slavery and demonstrates how individual Catholics – already directed towards helping the poor – can be the missing element to an effective abolition movement when exposed to this phenomenon through a diocesan awareness program that empowers the faithful with tools to recognize and assist those persons caught in the trafficker’s web.
Koji Fukaya
The Conversion of Joseph Hardy Neesima: A Critique of Tokuda Yukio’s Theory
Pacific School of Religion
Randi Jones Walker (Coordinator); David Matsumoto; Lisa Grumbach
This thesis is an investigation of the conversion of Joseph Hardy Neesima, one of the most influential Japanese Christian leaders of the nineteenth century. The thesis focuses on how one can introduce a transcendental concept, typically God, as a factor to work in conversion phenomenon by examining Tokuda Yukio’s theory and its application to Neesima’s case.
Tyler Duane Gardner
American Literature and A Secular Age: Emerson, Thoreau, and Melville
Pacific School of Religion
Devin Zuber (Coordinator); Jerome P. Baggett; Randi Jones Walker
Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age articulates the fundamental change in conditions of belief throughout Western society’s transition from ancient to modern. This thesis uses A Secular Age as a lens through which to explore the religious dimensions of American literature in the 19th century, focusing on the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Herman Melville.
Jakob Hero
Virtue Ethics and Transsexual Flourishing
Pacific School of Religion
Randall Miller (Coordinator); Lisa Fullam; Mark D. Jordan, Harvard University
This thesis articulates an ethics of human flourishing and virtue by addressing the particular needs of transsexuals. It looks at the transsexual as a whole person, not a product of medical intervention. It simultaneously asserts the importance of biotechnology and challenges its limitations for a holistic understanding of fulfillment. It concludes with the examination of four virtues as cardinal for transsexual flourishing: prudence, integrity, fidelity and justice.
Benjamin Heykes
White Ribbon Women and the Golden Gate of Heaven: Religion, Nature, Region, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of California
American Baptist Seminary of the West
Margaret McManus (Coordinator); Randi Jones Walker
The California Women’s Christian Temperance Union mirrored the national movement, but it also exhibited distinctions that, when analyzed, reflected the imprint of California’s natural environment. The environment influenced their Christianity, their ideas of women’s roles, and their expressions of their ultimate goals, distinguishing the California Union and showing the importance of nature’s influence on women in the American West.
David Mark James
Agony Without Ecstasy? Discernment of “The Dark Night of the Soul” in Historical and Theological Context
Franciscan School of Theology
William J. Short, O.F.M (Coordinator); Joseph D. Driskill
In recent years, Dark Night, by St. John of the Cross, has become increasingly popular. However, many contemporary works about Dark Night tend to blur St. John’s theological stance and his fundamental purpose for writing. To understand fully St. John’s treatises, one must be cognizant of their historical and theological context.
Carmel Rose Javier
Dialogue and Mission: Reform in the 20th Century
Franciscan School of Theology
Joseph P. Chinnici, O.F.M. (Coordinator)
John Kiesler, O.F.M.
This thesis investigates twentieth century shifts in growth and viewpoints of the Catholic Church’s relationship to non-Catholics by examining magisterial documents of the popes and Holy See. Given the Church’s support for human rights, particularly the right to religious freedom, the study argues that the Church needs to continue to dialogue with others in light of its eschatological vision.
Cecilee R. Jones
Families of Faith: A Snapshot of Muslim-American Motherhood
Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University
Jerome P. Baggett (Coordinator); Marianne Farina, C.S.C.
This thesis locates and analyzes the ways in which seven Muslim women living in Central California are raising their children. It portrays motherhood in three unrelated, but distinct capacities: mother as self-identity, as religious negotiator, and as a cultural mediator.
Derrick Leung
Rahnerian Anthropology and Human Identity Today
Franciscan School of Theology
Joseph P. Chinnici, O.F.M. (Coordinator); George E. Griener, S.J.
This thesis intends to reframe a spiritual discipline from popular culture to the theological framework of Karl Rahner. By deconstructing practices derived from The Power of Now as an archetype of popular spiritual discipline, Rahner’s anthropological assumptions of freedom and time are revealed to be inherent in forms of popular spirituality.
Alex McDermid
Gender in Jodo Shinshu Temple Families
Institute of Buddhist Studies
WITH HONORS
Lisa Grumbach (Coordinator); David Matsumoto
Gender in Jodo Shinshu Temple Families examines cultural expectations and prescriptions based on gender within temple families of the Jodo Shinshu denomination of Japanese Buddhism. Practitioners opinions and experiences of gender are shown in interview